Augmented reality apps turn smartphones into digital tour guides

April Fong, Financial Post07.12.2012

The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto launched its first AR experience as part of its “Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana” exhibition. Visitors can hold up iPads to the giant dinosaur fossil casts and see what the beasts might have looked like in their full flesh.

It’s the traveller’s curse: You’ve journeyed far from home, and you’re ready to experience all it has to offer. But in this unfamiliar town, street signs look like hieroglyphics, the waiter at the local restaurant doesn’t understand your dinner order, and you have no idea where you should start exploring or how to get there.

Luckily, your smartphone knows how to do all that for you.

Now, with augmented reality (AR) apps that make tourist recommendations, directions and even language translations instantly pop up through your phone’s camera view, travellers have access to data about their new city right at their fingertips. Welcome to the digital vacation — a nifty, less aggravating way to travel that may threaten the survival of old-school travel guidebooks.

“While there are still many visitors who prefer the traditional way of touring a city with a map and guidebook, digital and mobile tools are getting more popular,” said Kenneth Wong, head of product marketing at the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

Mr. Wong led the development of HKTB’s AR apps for travellers to Hong Kong, and in May 2011, the tourism board launched its DiscoverHongKong app series in partnership with Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd.

While the main DiscoverHongKong app is a comprehensive guide for more than 100 attractions, 5,500 retail stores, 2,000 dining outlets, as well as events in the Asian city, the series also includes special interest apps like City Walks and Heritage Walks for Hong Kong.

A fourth mobile AR app focusing on touring the city’s outlying islands is also in the works, Mr. Wong said.

With each app, tourists can aim their smartphone camera at a location, and points of interest in the vicinity appear overlaid on the screen’s real-time view. Visitors can tap specific attractions on the screen to obtain more detailed information, and also adjust the distance of their interested area.

“The beauty of these apps is that it shows you directions around the city in a 3D manner. It’s fun to use,” said Mr. Wong, adding that the DiscoverHongKong apps have been downloaded more than a million times since its launch.

“Hong Kong is a compact city with a lot of offerings, so the app helps you see interesting shops and attractions easily, and it helps you plan your trip.”

DiscoverHongKong certainly isn’t the only travel guide AR app. Wikitude, for example, provides users with a multitude of “worlds” — such as a Starbucks World, Irish Pubs Worldwide, Volcanoes — and shows if any of those related points of interest are in the direction you’re pointing your camera.

Even the backpackers’ gospel, Lonely Planet, has rolled out an AR option for Android phone users: a series of “Compass Guides” for 25 popular European, U.S. and Asian cities. The app has GPS-enabled maps and AR camera views, and — like the DiscoverHongKong apps — features pre-loaded information so users can use their smartphone GPS offline without incurring data roaming charges.

Travellers who find language barriers more frustrating than getting lost may also wish to swap their phrasebooks for their phone.

Microsoft’s Bing Translator, for one, not only translates languages spoken aloud or typed into the app. Users can also simply point their Windows phone camera at a road sign, transit schedule, poster, menu or the like, and the app recognizes and deciphers the written text instantly.

“Think of this as automatic subtitles for everyday life — a view that provides continuous translation smoothly overlaid over the original language,” said Vikram Dendi, director of product management and strategy for Bing Translator at Microsoft, in an email interview.

“While travelling in an unfamiliar city, this is exceedingly useful, because it is able to reduce or eliminate the need for users to figure out how to input the language of that place — a task that is particularly difficult with non-Latin character languages.”

Bing Translator is one of the top apps in Windows Marketplace, Microsoft’s app store for its Windows Phone platform, with more than 250,000 downloads within the first two months of release.

As AR helps more travellers get around, it’s also presenting a huge opportunity to boost the entertainment value of travel attractions.

The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto launched its first AR experience as part of its “Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana” exhibition on June 23. Inside the exhibition, iPads are provided and visitors can hold up the device to the giant dinosaur fossil casts. Like a reverse x-ray machine, people then come face-to-face with what the beasts might have looked like in their full flesh and textured glory.

Outside the exhibition, those with an iPhone or iPad can point their device at “Ultimate Dinosaurs” transit shelter ads around Toronto, and they’ll see a Giganotosaurus rip through the ad and flash its giant teeth.

Tracy Ruddell, ROM’s assistant vice-president of marketing, emphasizes that the AR features are not about doing something “because it’s gimmicky,” but achieving the right combination of education and entertainment.

“AR is a powerful tool because it can free objects from the confines of their displays and put them back into their original context,” Ms. Ruddell said.

“For dinosaurs, that means we can flesh out the skeletal casts to see what they would have looked like with the skin on, how they would have moved and behaved. It’s like travelling back in time.”

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.